Specialty Dentures Virginia Beach, VA
A removable partial denture (RPD) is for a partially edentulous dental patient who desires to have replacement teeth for functional or esthetic reasons, and who cannot have a bridge (a fixed partial denture) for any number of reasons, such as a lack of required teeth to serve as support for a bridge (distal abutments) or due to financial limitations. The reason why this type of prosthesis is referred to as a removable partial denture is because patients can remove and reinsert them when required without professional help. A "fixed" prosthesis can and should be removed only by a dental professional.
Partially Edentulous
Depending on where in the mouth teeth are missing, edentulous situations can be grouped under four different categories:
- Bilateral free ended partially edentulous - Class I - fabricated for people who are missing some or all of their posterior teeth on both sides (left and right) in a single arch (either mandibular or maxillary), and there are no teeth behind the edentulous area. Thus, Class I RPD's clasp onto teeth that are more towards the front of the mouth, while replacing the missing more-back-of-the-mouth teeth on both sides with false denture teeth, themselves composed of either plastic or porcelain.
- Unilateral free ended partially edentulous - Class II - fabricated for people who are missing some or all of their posterior teeth on one side (left or right) in a single arch, and there are no teeth behind the edentulous area. Thus, Class II RPD's clasp onto teeth that are more towards the front of the mouth, as well as on teeth that are more towards the back of the mouth of the side on which teeth are not missing, while replacing the missing more-back-of-the-mouth teeth on one side with false denture teeth.
- Unilateral bounded partially edentulous - Class III - fabricated for people who are missing some teeth such that the edentulous area has teeth remaining both behind and in front of it. Unlike Class I and Class II RPD's which are both tooth-and-tissue-borne (meaning they both clasp onto teeth and rest on the posterior edentulous area for support), Class III RPD's are strictly tooth-borne, which means they only clasp onto teeth and do not need to rest on the tissue for added support. This makes Class III RPD's exceedingly more secure as per the three rules of removable prostheses that will be mentioned later, namely, support, stability and retention.
- Bilateral bounded anterior partially edentulous - Class IV When at least both central incisors are missing
